Urban Construction Update - February 2014
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/photos/3085211364_wC3RhC8-M.jpg)
Major construction projects have returned to the landscape of Jacksonville's urban core. Find out where (and more) as we take a brief look at the status of various developments under construction in and around Downtown Jacksonville during the month of February.
Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2014-feb-urban-construction-update-february-2014
Nice update. Public, Private, Partnership? Was Downtown yesterday and noticed the concrete chunks at the Chamber and also all the concrete that is being removed on the Southbank Riverwalk and coupled with the mountains of concrete associated with the I95 project why we haven't been able to coordinate at least two 200' X 200' spots for the permitted artificial reefs south of the Fuller Warren bridge.
Hey, Mobro Marine guys how about taking an IOU for just taking a couple of those loaded barges and take it around the corner so we will create more opportunity with two artificial reefs in the river. Another positive benefit to make Downtown a Destination and not a pass through as we want to tell the world to Visit Jacksonville.
Also at the 2/19/14 DIA board meeting it was requested for a Southbank Riverwalk update that should be available for the 2/28/14 DIA meeting. A big news story is. Will there be a kayak launch next to MOSH?
Exciting (For Jacksonville at least) stuff. Wish some of the projects were finished earlier. Will have a bunch of family and friends here in town mid-June.
The Pardor parking garage doesn't look as bad as I remembered. Maybe that's cause Hogan street side got the retail? Does the water street side have retail too?
Quote from: Noone on February 21, 2014, 05:06:28 AM
coupled with the mountains of concrete associated with the I95 project
most of that concrete is being recycled into the project.
As for the Chamber project....the international plaza with the flags has already been built (its the parking lot)....this is just the front entrance
Quote from: Bridges on February 21, 2014, 08:39:38 AM
Exciting (For Jacksonville at least) stuff. Wish some of the projects were finished earlier. Will have a bunch of family and friends here in town mid-June.
The Pardor parking garage doesn't look as bad as I remembered. Maybe that's cause Hogan street side got the retail? Does the water street side have retail too?
That's just a rendering. I don't believe the garage will initially have retail on Hogan and the other streets. The developer doesn't have to build retail until most of the Suntrust Tower is occupied.
^^ Is it 60% or 65% occupied? Not a big difference but you have both numbers listed one after the other.
Far as I know, that pool was always called simply "Jefferson Street Pool" before that name change.
Quote from: ProjectMaximus on February 21, 2014, 02:01:53 PM
^^ Is it 60% or 65% occupied? Not a big difference but you have both numbers listed one after the other.
65% is the correct number.
Also, Corner Taco officially opened today:
QuoteOn Friday, the food truck-turned-restaurant officially opened, with hours from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and dinner from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2014/02/21/exclusive-corner-taco-opens-in.html
7-11 on Post is now open as well.
Quote from: tufsu1 on February 21, 2014, 09:08:08 AM
Quote from: Noone on February 21, 2014, 05:06:28 AM
coupled with the mountains of concrete associated with the I95 project
most of that concrete is being recycled into the project.
As for the Chamber project....the international plaza with the flags has already been built (its the parking lot)....this is just the front entrance
No Shoes
No Shirt
No Money
No Problem
Visit Jacksonville!
Public, Private, Partnership? Sorry, but this should be a text book case for the easiest 200' X 200' two permitted artificial reefs south of the Fuller Warren Bridge. Actually there could be 6 but the city only had enough money to pay the application fee for two.
Quote from: Lucasjj on February 21, 2014, 07:06:25 PM
7-11 on Post is now open as well.
They did a really good job on that buildout.
Why isn't anyone fuming about the Parador parking garage? I realize they aren't stacked, but I wish Parador would have coughed up a little change to improve the building itself rather than getting the stupid city and taxpayers to build an ugly, meaningless garage for them with no guarantee for demand and no return/promote arrangement for the city and immaterial change to the tax roll even if the building does lease up (and then I'm sure there will be a PR stunt in which the tenants are forced to say they located there because of the new garage).
I'll be missing the dirt lot, myself.
I still don't understand the "lack of parking" issue downtown. Someone walk me through it. Whenever I visit, I never even have trouble finding a metered spot, not even during lunch hour (which is typically when I visit). There are more garages than buildings, it seems. Is this about distance from parking spot to office? Are folks in Jax actually afraid to walk more than half a block? What is this about? I often walk 30 minutes to work (bus can take just as long). I pass executive types doing the same, all the time, and I'd put executives in San Francisco on a much higher pedestal than those in Jax.
I get that they want to offer a 3:1,000 SF parking ratio on-site (what's market in DT Jax?), but this isn't a trophy tower and I wonder why ownership doesn't focus more on prime location, unobstructed views, and maybe beef up amenities to set the tower apart from others and go for a unique and growing tenant pool in Jax (whatever that may be). Or maybe the economy is still so down there that nothing they do will bring tenants to the building, in which case the city didn't serve in a fiduciary capacity towards its constituents, the taxpayers, and do its diligence.
Quote from: ben says on February 22, 2014, 09:14:10 AM
Quote from: Lucasjj on February 21, 2014, 07:06:25 PM
7-11 on Post is now open as well.
They did a really good job on that buildout.
I'll second that. Moving the driveways away from the corner is a real plus too. Went in there to look around and saw that they have an amazing amount of fresh fruit and other ready to eat food.
Landscaping really improves the look of that corner.
Quote from: simms3 on February 22, 2014, 02:47:24 PM
Why isn't anyone fuming about the Parador parking garage? I realize they aren't stacked, but I wish Parador would have coughed up a little change to improve the building itself rather than getting the stupid city and taxpayers to build an ugly, meaningless garage for them with no guarantee for demand and no return/promote arrangement for the city and immaterial change to the tax roll even if the building does lease up (and then I'm sure there will be a PR stunt in which the tenants are forced to say they located there because of the new garage).
I'll be missing the dirt lot, myself.
I still don't understand the "lack of parking" issue downtown. Someone walk me through it. Whenever I visit, I never even have trouble finding a metered spot, not even during lunch hour (which is typically when I visit). There are more garages than buildings, it seems. Is this about distance from parking spot to office? Are folks in Jax actually afraid to walk more than half a block? What is this about? I often walk 30 minutes to work (bus can take just as long). I pass executive types doing the same, all the time, and I'd put executives in San Francisco on a much higher pedestal than those in Jax.
I get that they want to offer a 3:1,000 SF parking ratio on-site (what's market in DT Jax?), but this isn't a trophy tower and I wonder why ownership doesn't focus more on prime location, unobstructed views, and maybe beef up amenities to set the tower apart from others and go for a unique and growing tenant pool in Jax (whatever that may be). Or maybe the economy is still so down there that nothing they do will bring tenants to the building, in which case the city didn't serve in a fiduciary capacity towards its constituents, the taxpayers, and do its diligence.
I guess you failed to read all the fuming about it in the actual threads about it.
Quote from: Dog Walker on February 22, 2014, 04:29:28 PM
Quote from: ben says on February 22, 2014, 09:14:10 AM
Quote from: Lucasjj on February 21, 2014, 07:06:25 PM
7-11 on Post is now open as well.
They did a really good job on that buildout.
I'll second that. Moving the driveways away from the corner is a real plus too. Went in there to look around and saw that they have an amazing amount of fresh fruit and other ready to eat food.
Landscaping really improves the look of that corner.
Now if someone could only do something w/ that sea foam green 2 story house on Margaret next door.
I'd love to get my hands on that...
Quote from: simms3 on February 22, 2014, 02:47:24 PM
Why isn't anyone fuming about the Parador parking garage?
We fumed. The result was COJ and Parador agreeing to construct street level retail after the SunTrust Tower is 65% leased. Definitely, not ideal but once they got COJ's approval and necessary permits pulled, there's not much one can do but move on.
^ and possibly monitor to make sure that when they reach 65% that it is built. I'm sure COJ has no such enforcement plans. I'm sure most of the "fuming" is being saved for that fight.
Quote from: ben says on February 22, 2014, 06:26:17 PM
Quote from: Dog Walker on February 22, 2014, 04:29:28 PM
Quote from: ben says on February 22, 2014, 09:14:10 AM
Quote from: Lucasjj on February 21, 2014, 07:06:25 PM
7-11 on Post is now open as well.
They did a really good job on that buildout.
I'll second that. Moving the driveways away from the corner is a real plus too. Went in there to look around and saw that they have an amazing amount of fresh fruit and other ready to eat food.
Landscaping really improves the look of that corner.
Now if someone could only do something w/ that sea foam green 2 story house on Margaret next door.
I'd love to get my hands on that...
904 Margaret Street is a 1920"s Mediterranean Revival. It is owned by an elderly woman who had a business partner at one point and there is some sort of complication with the title. It is accumulating Code Enforcement fines for a number of violations including being unsecured at this time.
About two or three years ago the owners of a sushi restaurant in the city decided that it would make a great upscale Asian restaurant on the lines of Indochine. They had some financial backers too. I referred them to a friend of mine who has done a number of design/build-outs for upper end restaurants. He did preliminary engineering studies and plans that were really fantastic and added a good deal of outside seating, but did almost no changes to the outside. It would have flown through the COA process with no problem. There wasn't quite enough parking, but there is plenty of on-street and other public parking in the area and a zoning exception would not have been hard to get either.
Unfortunately the owner and her business partner were in a legal dispute at the time with the building title involved so the whole project fell through.
So if you know of someone who wants to open a upscale restaurant with a wonderful view of the park and a great location let me know. There is a whole bunch of expensive work that has already been done.
My wife wants it to be named "Paris on the Park".
At this point the price is probably highly negotiable. There is a realtors sign out front for Middleton Realty.
I was under the impression the owners wouldn't take a dime less than 240k.
Also under the impression there is no commercial kitchen nor is there the parking for one.
For the right price, wanted to grab it and put it a very nice bar (think Sidebar at Husk in Charleston) with maybe a second story "desert room" (think Berns in Tampa)
No commercial kitchen, but one has been designed that fills in between the two back wings of the house expanding the original kitchen. Parking/delivery for the kitchen is not a problem. Handicapped access has been taken care of with some really clever design that hides the ramp outside in an expanded terrace and utilizes the existing staircase inside to provide access to the second floor.
My contractor friend, who has done build-outs for me, is really good and creative with his designs.
Call the realtor. Times have changed. $240,000 is too much for that building in its current condition. She's going to lose it anyway if something isn't done in the next year or so.
It's a great building in a wonderful location just looking for the persons with the vision and financing to bring it back to life. Just making it back into a medical office (the last incarnation) won't justify that price and the cost of renovation, but a restaurant or similar would.